Islander-Sound Tiger NHL Notables

AHL.com: Reported Joel Rechlicz was returned to Bridgeport but a lot of these have been paper transactions.

Point Blank: Mr Botta has an exclusive interview with defenseman Jack Hillen.

Ct Post: Michael Fornabaio reports Islander Prospect Kevin Poulin is in Bridgeport, with Matt Martin, Justin DiBenedetto to Bridgeport also from the Sarnia Sting possible soon.

Mr Fornabaio apparently is not allowed to say much on Bridgeport's relocation to New York for playoff games but I will let his words speak for themselves.

Newsday: Greg Logan had an Islander Insider on Rechlicz who may stay down in Bridgeport because Sean Bergenheim could be activated among several subjects with a team comparison to the Detroit Red Wings.

NYI Fan Central Comments:
Mr Logan does a nice job telling us about the Wings success and how old and run down their facility is, he does even better informing us owner Mike Ilitch receives all the things Smg receives today instead of Charles Wang.

What he fails to point out in his comparisons is the Wings for years were spending anywhere from sixty to eighty million on team payroll that set them up for their current reputation as a model franchise to attract players.

Mr Logan also failed to note the Wings have had attendance problems deep into the playoffs here and reportedly going into the lockout needed to make the finals simply to break even financially here.

The thing about NHL revenue no one writes about is if you spend 120m to generate 100m as a return that is generating a lot of revenue but it's still losing money and plenty of it which no one writes at all in these worthless estimated team financial evaluations.

For billion dollar companies who happen to own sports teams as a sidebar it's a smart risk to take that advantage but it eventually erodes the financial system.

This is what clearly is going on with Dallas and Colorado who could finally not buy their way out of a bad season or sustain their spending with the later maybe qualifying for revenue sharing here.

The Montreal Canadians have had financial problems too despite any revenue they generate here they have had a history of losing money even being a team that was not spending 80m a year on payroll before the lockout.

Islander News Articles 3/28

Will update early Saturday so we have as many quotes as possible from both sides.

Newsday: Greg Logan's game recap has goaltender Joey MacDonald's comments on his first career shutout against his former team in his game recap.

NHL.com: Brian Hunter has comments from Joey MacDonald on his first shutout who credited his team as he talked about his diving save in the second period. Head coaches Scott Gordon and Mike Babcock also discusses the game with Wings defender Nicklas Lidstrom agreeing with MacDonald the momentum swung with the two goals and the big saves.

NHL.com: Larry Wigge does a feature on Bill Guerin comparing his circumstances here vs Pittsburgh and uses Scott Gordon's rotten apples comment to make his point with the Long Island label slapped on virtually everything despite the head coach's praise for Bill Guerin.

Kyle Okposo in this NHL feature that has several subjects but leads with Guerin also has Kyle Okposo's comments about adding a franchise talent or finishing this season strong.

NYI Fan Central Comments:
If Larry Wigge who is a long-time respected writer cannot do the homework or only goes for Newsday blurbs where even Greg Logan speculated he was not talking about Bill Guerin how is anyone else going to get these stories right?

Scott Gordon was on XM radio and praised Guerin earlier this week, that did not make it in this article at all.

Canadian Press: Has Bruno Gervais and Josh Bailey's comments in their recap along with MacDonald.

Detroit News: Ted Kulfan has the recap of New York's 2-0 win in Detroit.

Michigan Live: Ansar Khan also has a game recap.

Detroit Free Press: Also has Red Wings coverage on their loss.

Journal-Star: Kevin Capie reports Islanders scout Ken Morrow was one of at least five NHL teams scouting the Peoria Rivermen against the Milwaukee Admirals on Friday.

Ct Post: Michael Fornabaio previews Saturday's big game in Hershey with head coach Jack Capuano and defenseman Andrew MacDonald's comments.

New York 2, Detroit 0 " Thank God For Night Off "

Associated Press: Recaps New York's 2-0 win against the Red Wings in Detroit on Friday.

I'm sure older fans back from 72-73 understand the title when the expansion Islanders visited Detroit and found that sign waiting for them at the Olympia.

Congratulations to Joey MacDonald on his first NHL shutout which comes against his former team, that sprawling save was one for the books.

NYI Fan Central Comments:
Team trying for a league record fifty wins four years in a row not since the 70's and you could see a lot of empty seats and not much noise in that building for a club first overall on a Friday night.

A few posts and Joey MacDonald giving them the goaltending we saw early in the season or as early as opening night with a few incredible saves but for the most part the Islanders got in the lanes, forced mistakes and pressured the Wings.

Without MacDonald's play and the post/crossbar Wings could have had four or five goals, the chances they created they worked hard for.

Some of the calls against the Isles seemed like homer/experience calls like Okposo in the first where the puck was there so it could not be interference or that late third period penalty against Martinek where Johan Franzen was touched and went down like he tried to draw one and did.

On the Islanders side of the puck a very solid team effort blocking shots and making good defensive plays across the board. Gervais looks like he went to the Mark Streit school of defense and to me has never looked more confident jumping in on offense or just clearing a puck when it needs to be. He has been a solid defender for a few years, lately he seems to be able to create offense and playing at a higher level.

On offense the kids with Comeau, Bailey not on that line with Tambellini-Nielsen-Okposo who simply were the Islanders best line worked for some chances with the Islander forwards who simply are not likely to score often.

Give Jackman high marks for his work to create Bailey's goal who got position on Nicklas Lidstrom and earned the second goal. Seemed like if the Isles got one to Streit on one of those powerplays he was going to make it 3-0.

Okposo looks more and more like a franchise player, some of the plays late he was knocking down Wing players on defense, his vision and patience to find Nielsen with that pass who made a great move on Osgood for the shorthanded goal.

A game everyone including the fans can highlight for this season, the kids were the best players, MacDonald was outstanding. Isles got in the trenches and did well against the best team in the NHL, not the kind of skilled offensive win against the Devils but still a good team effort.

Memorable night.

Philadelphia is here resting already, will be interesting to see what the Islanders do Saturday off that kind of win.

New York at Detroit 7:30pm Msg+ Weight Activated

The Islanders announced Doug Weight has been activated off IR and Mike Iggulden has been returned to Bridgeport so drop another player from the man-games lost to injury for Friday's game.

03/24/2009 DET 3 @ EDM 2
03/23/2009 DET 3 @ CGY 5
03/20/2009 DET 6 @ ATL 3
03/17/2009 PHI 2 @ DET 3
03/15/2009 DET 4 @ CBJ 0

Player GP G A PTS +/-
Pavel Datsyuk 73 30 59 89 35
Henrik Zetterberg 69 29 38 67 15
Marian Hossa 68 37 29 66 23
Brian Rafalski 74 10 47 57 21
Johan Franzen 63 31 24 55 19
Jiri Hudler 74 22 32 54 6
Nicklas Lidstrom 71 13 38 51 30
Niklas Kronwall 72 4 42 46 1
Mikael Samuelsson 73 18 21 39 5
Daniel Cleary 66 14 24 38 6

Updated Player Pos
03/10/09 Andreas Lilja D Concussion, knee IR. Out indefinitely

Player GP W-L-OT S GAA SV%
Chris Osgood 40 24-6-8 1048 3.18 .884
Ty Conklin 38 25-9-4 975 2.42 .912

NYI Fan Central Comments:
Detroit Red Wings tonight attempt to become only the third team in NHL history to record three fifty win seasons in a row which has not happened since the 1970's era.

Islanders last played in Detroit December 12/4/2005 and defeated the Wings 2-1 in a game if I recall Mike York scored a late goal. Steve Stirling was into his final month as coach for those looking back.

Needless to write the Wings are an outstanding club but their goaltending at times can be suspect, will they take the Islanders lightly who should not be happy with their recent play or how some games have gotten away from them because those losses seem a lot more about the mistakes by the team than what the other team is doing or do we see the club perform as it did against New Jersey and in Montreal where they generated quality chances and scored skilled goals?

This should be a fun test for the young players, only Scott Gordon knows who gets the call in net but with back to back I expect Joey MacDonald will start against his former team as Danis did against Montreal.

Wings give up some goals, but they also have scored 276 goals.

For the lottery only fans, it seems anything short of a free fall by Tampa and especially Colorado who are playing like they might not gain another point, it seems a three team race for 30th overall which means a first or second pick in this summers draft.

Islanders currently trail Colorado by eight points but with win disparity you can make that nine as the first tie-breaker goes to the Avs despite the Isles recent win head to head.

For my money I'd like to see the Islanders put on a very impressive show tonight because the turn-around back home the next night will not be easy with the Flyers already in New York on Friday waiting and coming off a bad loss themselves.

This is the final game against the Western Conference.

Islander News Articles 3/27

Newsday: John Jeansonne covered practice Thursday with head coach Scott Gordon's comments on the effort in the 6-2 loss and how he is using his young players.

Injury updates are given on Doug Weight and Sean Bergenheim.

Newsday: Eden Laikin recapped Thursday meeting on the Lighthouse which had no new announcements beyond County Executive Tom Suozzi quoted as saying if the project isn't approved, there won't be sufficient funding to rehabilitate the Coliseum - making it hard for the Islanders to remain.


NYI Fan Central Comments:
Begging the question why doesn't Nassau County's current Executive condemn former County Executives Tom Gulotta's lease with Smg so whoever owns the Islanders can get their full ticket revenue, parking and concessions?

Newsday: David A. Levy, counsel to the supervisor of the Town of Hempstead is given a full article in Newsday where he says the delays over the years is on Nassau County Executive Tom Suozzi, who took years to approve a project, a developler and that the TOH is moving as fast as possible as Supervisor Kate Murray's actions were defended and have expedited this process as concerns of what the scale of this project will bring to the area.

NY Post: Dan Martin had three paragraphs on tonight's game and last night's meeting with his own speculation, he obviously was not in attendance.

Updated 11:00am
Newsday: Mark Herrmann in the NHL Newsday blog on had more on the exchanges between the Islanders and Wild in Wednesday's game where he used the Minnesota coverage.


NYI Fan Central Comments:
This was after at least two Ranger blog entries on their Thursday loss begging the question what took so long when Islander fans may have wanted to read this the day after the game?

Detroit News: Ted Kulfan has an update from Red Wings Practice and confirms former Islander Chris Osgood will start Friday.

Detroit Free Press: George Sipple has Red Wings line changes at practice Thursday with Helen St.James article on the Wings here.

WXYK.com: Has audio of Red Wings Head coach Mike Babcock's comments about the Islanders.

Ct Post: Michael Fornabaio reports Rob Hennigar was called up from the Utah Grizzlies on Thursday.

AHL.com reported Joel Rechlicz and Mike Iggulden were returned to Bridgeport but those could be paper transactions only.

Bridgeport has a rare Friday off but plays a big game in Hershey Saturday.

Islanders/NHL/Finals notables

Islanders website: Answered the fans questions from the open house last week.

NYI Fan Central Comments:
Best player available, we'll see what we can do. A lot of stock answers to questions but impossible to blame the Islanders for this. They cannot give definitive answers to most of these questions without giving up strategy. What can they say about transportation answers that are more Nassau County than the club but who they no doubt will try and work with?

Point Blank: Mr Botta answered more questions in his blog with this one on fan relations with the team.

NYI Fan Central Comments:
It should be noted all links to Mr Botta's blog have been removed from the Islanders website. I would hope the person taking Mr Botta's spot would be willing to blog and talk to the fans at some point also.

What was the rush to pull his link or not leave it in for Islander fans who use the website to access it? I did not know this until today because his blog is linked here.

Media blog: Cory Witt reports Bill & Kara Guerin are being honored at the Long Island Children’s Museum on May 30th. Part of the evening will include a live auction, which the Guerin's are offering up the opportunity for 12 children to play a game of street hockey at their Long Island home with the Islanders captain.

National Post/several reports: Confirm Tony Granato has been signed on for a second time to coach the Colorado Avalanche.

NYI Fan Central Comments:
Would I be correct in guessing Lou Lamoriello would be the last one to coach the same organization twice unless were talking about Larry Robinson from the same organization?

A little surprising but Larry Robinson went from coach to assistant coach back to head coach. Granato will do the same after being an assistant for the Avs.

Of course Robinson won a Stanley Cup for the Devils.

Islander fans are well aware Mike Milbury came back a second time from the gm box to coach and that did not end well at all with the players practically driving Milbury back upstairs for good.

I wonder if Peter Laviolette will in the same position a year from now?

Detroit Free Press: Has Gary Bettman's comments from a radio interview (WDFN-AM 1130) on the finals, the scheduling conflicts and a bunch of items.

NYI Fan Central Comments:
I know it's easy to blame Bettman for anything/everything but if this was scheduled over a year in advance by both leagues there is nothing that can be done to anticipate this. The Wings and Pistons no longer share the same facility and also the networks are competing with one another.

Also both the Wings and Pens have earned a few days off. If Dallas-Detroit went seven games that would only have been a two day break. We see teams at playoff time get a full week off and more all the time after a short series. Four days is not that big a deal.

Fun storyline for me is Scott Bowman coached both clubs to their last Stanley Cup.

I have no idea which club will win, both play a modified trap and can slow things down with a lead. Both have good offenses with an extra gear that can turn it up.

This is a different Chris Osgood than in past years who won a cup but mostly was about the club in front of him dominating. Now he is stepping up where in the past soft goals found him. Fleury is playing like a number one pick only getting better. On paper the Wings have the better names on defense but that is all about the chemistry of the collective group.

It could be very close but it could be a blowout also with one teams system/strategy simply better at this time. A long/competitive series between one of the two best national ratings markets in the East (Pittsburgh/Buffalo) & the top ratings market in the West (Detroit) is the dream exposure matchup for hockey.

A guess prediction here but I see Pittsburgh in six. I have a hard time seeing a different Osgood who allowed soft goals in critical moments because that's how I remember him even if he has seemingly turned around his career this season which is unfair on my part but an impression that marks his career for me.

For what little this is worth Osgood is one of those goalies who is not wearing an extra fifty pounds of equipment where he takes up another twenty percent of the net, he broke in during a different generation for goaltenders. My impression is Pittsburgh's great offensive talent will see those openings and exploit them.

Having written all that if Osgood plays like a stopper Detroit has a great chance.

Will Espn News be the only outlet with a full postgame when NBC goes off the air when they start covering games? This is a problems Versus should finally correct because in past years once the contract for their games was up they stopped all finals post-game coverage.

Games would be off NBC within minutes, Versus would be showing their own programming and hockey fans had to scramble to find any postgame press conferences after a team wins a Stanley Cup.

Enter Espn News for all postgame which is kind of ironic and only fuels the
Espn-spin doctors in the media business with a vested interest to market Espn & everyone else to make a great point why not get Espn back in the mix for hockey if Versus is not going to do a postgame.

Dick Ebersol, Sam Flood, Gary Bettman, Comcast, Ed Snider, Versus, repeat after me.

All finals games will have full postgame coverage and press conferences on Versus after each game of the Stanley Cup Finals followed by a repeat of the NBC telecast.

No law against Versus making every day hockey day with past finals highlights, hockey programming, and a pregame before NBC shows the live game either.

Updated:
Elite Prospects.com: Reports former Islander Zigmund Palffy signed a three year contract extension with
HK 36 Skalica today which their website confirms here.

NYI Fan Central Comments:
Like Chris Simon we do not know if his contract could allow for him to sign as an NHL unrestricted free agent but given how long Ziggy has been out of the NHL I would expect he will end his playing career where he is after this contract. Of course this Islander fan wishes Palffy the best of luck.

Monday NHL Confirmed Trades/Transactions

Tsn.ca: Reports the Detroit Red Wings have signed right wing Darren McCarty to a one-year contract and assigned him to Grand Rapids on a 14-day conditioning loan.

NYI Fan Central Comments:
Were off and running with the first transaction. Unless Peter Forsberg decides to change his mind and play for a club I'm not expecting any more moves along these lines.
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Updated 4:45 pm
Tsn.ca: Reports Peter Forsberg has signed with the Colorado Avalanche for the rest of this season.

NYI Fan Central Comments:
I had no idea when I mentioned him earlier today, I guess he changed his mind but it made me laugh.

Good news is we can stop hearing the reports on his injury, better news the league is a better place with him in it. Bad news we have to go through this again as soon as the summer.

All these news feeders all set up for trades and we get two signings......lol

Garth Snow, you go right ahead and sign Kenny Jonsson.
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Updated 9pm:
Tsn.ca: Reports the Flyers The Lightning have shipped forward Vaclav Prospal to the Philadelphia Flyers for defensemen Alexandre Picard and a second or third round draft pick in 2009.

If Philadelphia qualifies for the 2008 Eastern Conference Finals Tampa Bay will receive Philadelphia's second-round pick in 2009, and if they do not the Lightning will receive Calgary's third-round pick in 2009.
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Tsn.ca: Reports The Tampa Bay Lightning have signed the 31-year old defensemen Dan Boyle to a six-year, $40 million dollar deal.

TSN has learned that the deal will pay Boyle $6.66 million per year for six years. The deal will include a no trade clause in the first four years and a modified no trade in years five and six.
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Tsn.ca: Reports the St. Louis Blues have signed the Barrett Jackman to a four year contract extension worth $14.4 million.

NYI Fan Central Comments:
That noise you hear in the background is Brian Campbell's agent cheering.
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NHL Notables 10/5:

Globe and Mail: William Houston had high praise for Mike Milbury's debut on TSN and had the following:

He was excellent. He has a strong presence, is confidently opinionated and brings plenty of colour to his commentary.

* On the feud between GMS Brian Burke of Anaheim and Kevin Lowe of Edmonton:

“I just love it that Brian Burke is apoplectic out there in Anaheim and has a Kevin Lowe Voodoo Doll in his office and a lifetime supply of pins. This is war and it will not go away."

* On Montreal’s underachiever Alexei Kovalev:

“He can score, he can make plays and then the next night he barks like a dog. This guy has got to show up every night or he's going to kill the coach. Well, the coach has to kill him. Take away the keys to his plane and block the door to Chez Parée (a Montreal strip joint). Make him concentrate on hockey."

NYI Fan Central Comments:
There was Mike Milbury the other night on TSN picking the Rangers to win the Stanley Cup at the end of a segment. He's entitled to say what he likes. I guess that puts to bed any misconceptions he has ties to the Islanders or consulting Charles Wang any longer.

Milbury like him or hate him is good for the NHL. I hope he never sells himself out for a paycheck like so many in the business do but my guess is sooner or later he will. I also think when the Jacobs family dumps Peter Chiarelli after a second poor season his friend and personal coaching choice in Claude Julien will follow and Milbury will be back coaching the Bruins.

Dallas Morning News : Mike Heika reports on the Dallas Stars not selling out their home opener and notes the Colorado Avalanche did not sellout it's home opener either. He also notes the countless articles on the thousands of empty seats in Detroit who could not even sellout it's semi-final games.

NYI Fan Central Comments:
So let's recap:
Detroit cannot sellout home opener and pad attendance.
Dallas cannot sellout the home opener in a modern building.
Colorado cannot sellout the home opener in a modern building with Ryan Smyth.
Chicago has been a ghost town for years.
Rangers pad the attendance, announce sellouts and had seats available today.
Boston has significant attendance problems.
Devils historically have had significant attendance problems.
St Louis played in a building at around sixty percent of seats sold last year.

Sure I'm not including a lot of teams.

How can anyone blame the Islanders after all this time without winning for not having similar problems in a market where baseball and the other major sports dominate the media year round and coverage is limited.

Why is it Nashville needs 14,000 or they have to move again if Detroit cannot sellout a semi-final game or opening night after going to the conference finals?

Mike Ilitch as much as he likes cannot blame Nashville. The Stanley Cup champions were in town Wednesday and he could not fill his building. Did baseball take over Detroit like it did in Chicago, Boston and New York ?

NYI Fan Central Comments:
No article here because this is over a week old but Roberto Luongo threatening retirement if the nets are made larger brings a response from me of I bet Ed Belfour's billion dollars you will not retire if nets are made larger. Just be grateful goaltenders equipment is not reduced to where it used to be or we would see a dramatic improvement in scoring.

Let's do a quick check of NY Post coverage going into the opener:
Ranger previews two.
Devils previews two.
Islander previews zero.

Devils and Rangers played Thursday.

Even the News and Times did one article. How much does a blogger cost?

Where's my check !!!!!!!!